Posts Tagged: UK

The UK chapter of IJAN was launched in 2008. From the beginning we have prioritised our accountability to the Palestinian struggle, worked with others in the Palestinian solidarity movement (members of IJAN are currently working as part of London Palestine Action) and other grassroots movements impacted by Israeli apartheid, murder, repression, militarization and other brutality.

Submission to the Shami Chakrabarti Inquiry, “into antisemitism and other forms of racism including islamophobia, within the party” International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network UK 10 June 2016 An anti-racist movement versus witch-hunting with antisemitism As Jewish members of the Labour Party, who are also in the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, we do not believe that Labour… Read more »

IJAN is centrally involved in the No Israeli Funding of the Arts initiative – we want everyone we are in touch with to know that the UKJFF (UK Jewish Film Festival) is taking place this year in cinemas in Glasgow, Leeds, London, Manchester and Nottingham, between 6-23 November.

We have written to all the cinemas – see our letter below – and we are asking that you contact your local (or even a distant) cinema by phone, email website, leaflet or street protest, and let them know what you think of them hosting an Israeli-funded event. (All cinema contact details are at end of this email.) Call or write to the local press or call-in radio to tell them what you think of their not caring for Jewish films, only for the Israeli rebranding. (See below.)

Check the UKJFF calendar to find when each cinema is hosting UKJFF films. The opening gala night is at the London BFI on 6 November – we are planning to protest their collaboration with the slaughterers of the Gazan people.

After two demonstrations organized by IJAN-UK last year in front of the Tricycle Theatre protesting the Israeli Embassy sponsorship of the UK Jewish Film Festival (UKJFF) , the Tricycle decided this year that given the onslaught against Gaza, they would not host the festival if it was connected financially with the Embassy. To make absolutely… Read more »

Jews in Britain Against Genocide wrote the following letter to the artistic director of the Tricycle Theater thanking the Tricycle for refusing to host a film festival funded in part by the Israeli government. The letter expresses outrage at false accusations of anti-Semitism leveled at the Tricycle and condemns Israel’s use of culture to promote its global image as a way of maintaining impunity in its murderous violence against and disposession of Palestinians.

At 3.30pm today, 4 August 2014, outside the London offices of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, on the 27th day of Israel’s military attack on the Gazan people, Jews in Britain Against Genocide staged a die-in to commemorate the hundreds of Palestinian children deliberately targeted and killed by Israel. We displayed toys, clothes and replicas of mutilated children and babies smeared red to symbolise the blood of Palestinian children murdered by Israeli forces.

Last November, IJAN and Israeli & Irish supporters had two lively and noisy protests of the Tricycle when they hosted the Israeli-sponsored UK Jewish Film Festival (UKJFF) last year (2 & 13 November 2013). The protest was organized as part of BDS (the effort for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel), and targeted the film festival because it is co-sponsored by the Israeli embassy. Now the Tricycle has refused to host the film festival citing the continued sponsorship of the embassy.

The Conference, held at the School of Oriental andAfrican Studies (SOAS) in London, was hosted by the SOAS Palestinian Societyand drew close to 200 academics and activists from around the world. While allthe presentations were useful, talks by Adam Hanieh and Jamal Juma stand out.Hanieh laid out how some sectors of Palestinian society had in fact actuallybenefited from Oslo (getting jobs and money) and therefore had a vestedinterest in continuing the partnership with Zionism at the expense of theoverwhelming majority of Palestinians. Two presentations by Stop the Wall‘sJamal Juma, a grassroots activist from the West Bank, offered a detaileddescription of resistance on the ground both in the lead up to the Oslo Accordsand continued resistance to fight against the monster that the Oslo Accordshave created.

IJAN’s contributionincluded laying out in detail why we organize as Jews against Zionism, and adescription of our strategy of Joint Struggle against Zionism as part ofbroader movements for justice and using the grass-roots Palestinian resistanceas our point of reference. Otherspeakers explained how in the aftermath of Oslo utilities in the West Bank havebeen integrated into Israeli and settlement distribution systems making itpossible to cut off electricity and water to Palestinians while leaving thesettlements untouched. You can see a video of much of the conference here.

On Saturday evening 2 November,protestors gathered outside as the Tricycle opened an Israeli-sponsored Jewishfilm festival.

The livelyand colourful protest was called by the International Jewish Anti-ZionistNetwork, in response to the Israeli Embassy’s sponsorship of the Tricycle’sFestival. People from different faiths, including an Israeli activist,Palestinian solidarity activists, and campaigners from the KentishTown-based Global Women’s Strike, came together to remind the Tricycle that atthe very same time that they hosted the festival last year, Israel was bombingGaza, killing 158 Palestinians; including 30 children.

Protestors, who have valued theTricycle for decades through its vitally informative and entertaining playsabout Afghanistan, Ireland’s Bloody Sunday, US Guantanamo, the Stephen LawrenceInquiry, and more, are appalled at the Tricycle hosting a film festivalsponsored by a government whose major industry is repression, not only ofPalestinians but around the world.

With placards and a loudspeaker theyhighlighted that Israel had broken the international boycott of apartheid South Africa – supplying itwith military hardware and training, and helping build its nuclear industry;had armed the Argentinean junta even as it killed thousands, including manyJews; had helped arm and train the Rwandan military and Hutu militia whichcommitted genocide against the Tutsis; and helped arm the Sri Lankan governmentwith warfare technology, including drones, enabling it to massacre tensof thousands of Tamils.*

Protestors were shocked that theTricycle was not only using security guards who refused to identify themselves,but also that a vanload of police had been called on an entirely peacefulprotest. The protestors, who are mainly local residents and theTricycle’s most loyal audience, have written to the new artistic director ofthe Tricycle, Indhu Rubasingham, to say: "Given that Israeli apartheid is not loved, especially inmulti-racial Kilburn . . . Is this who the Tricycle wants to be associatedwith?

Stop the JNF and Prawer Plan IJAN UK is a founding member of the Stop the JNF Campaign and helped to prepare a submission (in consultation with lawyers working pro-bono) to the Charity Commissioners in the UK and making the case for the commission to investigate the Jewish National Fund’s charitable status in the UK…. Read more »

On 20 November 2012, under the shadow of the Israeli bombing of Gaza, a Jewish anti-Zionist panel spoke about Confronting Zionism at the London School of Economics (LSE) – organised by LSE Student Union Palestine Society.

Yael Kahn & Michael Kalmanovitz (both IJAN) spoke about their rejection of, and campaigning against, Zionism; also speaking was John Rose from the British Committee for Universities for Palestine(BRICUP).Thepredominatly student audience was transfixed when Yael spoke about her discovery that her family home was on stolen land. The meeting was chaired by Emeritus Professor JonathanRosenhead (BRICUP).